Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Live roll
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-19
2004-04-20
Valenza, Joseph E. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Live roll
Reexamination Certificate
active
06722493
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conveyor roller drive device for driving the conveyor rollers of a conveyor system by rotational power provided by a power generator. The present invention also relates to a drive roller assembly with the conveyor roller drive device combined with the conveyor rollers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, conveyor systems for conveying various goods have been widely used in every aspect of whatever the industrial field.
In general, such a conveyor system includes a plurality of conveyor rollers, and one or more of the conveyor rollers are rotated by means of the conveyor roller drive device. It is to be understood that the combination of the driven conveyor rollers and the conveyor roller drive device is herein referred to as the drive roller assembly.
Incidentally, the concept of the conveyor system includes two types of conveyor systems, one type of system for allowing the conveyor rollers to directly contact with and convey goods, and the other type of system, having a conveyor belt wound around a plurality of conveyor rollers, for allowing the conveyor belt to convey the goods.
In recent years, such a drive roller assembly of motor roller type has been realized which houses a conveyor roller drive device inside the conveyor rollers. Such a configuration allows motor or the like to disappear when viewed from outside. Thus, this makes it possible to provide a more functional design to the system and thereby allows the production line of a factory to look tidy in addition to a reduction in size and weight of the conveyor system.
FIG. 8
illustrates a drive roller assembly
10
of this type. The drive roller assembly
10
functions as a motor roller, in which a conveyor roller drive device
16
(hereinafter referred to as the drive device) is housed inside a cylindrical barrel portion
14
of a conveyor roller
12
.
The drive device
16
includes a motor
18
or a type of power generator, a gear reducer
20
provided in the motor
18
, and a coupling portion
22
, coupled to the barrel portion
14
, for transmitting output from the gear reducer
20
to the conveyor roller
12
. At the rear side of a casing
24
of the motor
18
, a support shaft
24
a
is provided integrally therewith and fixed to an external member
26
(the overall configuration thereof is not shown; for example, which corresponds to a conveyor frame). Two bearings
28
are provided inside the casing
24
and rotatably support a motor shaft
30
.
The gear reducer
20
is a three-stage reduction configuration having first to third simple planetary gear mechanisms
32
,
34
,
36
, in which each of the simple planetary gear mechanisms
32
,
34
,
36
has a sun gear T, a planetary gear Y, a ring gear R, and a carrier C. In this configuration, all the ring gears R are integrally formed in a gear box
38
, a rotational power is input to the sun gear T, and the rotational power is output from the carrier C. The gear box
38
is fixed to the casing
24
of the motor
18
.
The sun gear T of the first simple planetary gear mechanism
32
is formed directly on the end portion of the motor shaft
30
and thereby allows the power of the motor
18
to be input. In addition, the carrier C of the third simple planetary gear mechanism
36
is provided with an output shaft
40
of the gear reducer
20
. The coupling portion
22
has a cylindrical projection
22
b
formed at the center of a disc-shaped plate portion
22
a
. The output shaft
40
is fixedly inserted in the projection
22
b
, and the periphery of the plate portion
22
a
is fixed with screws
22
c
to the barrel portion
14
. This configuration allows the power of the motor
18
to be reduced by means of the gear reducer
20
and in turn transmitted to the conveyor roller
12
via the coupling portion
22
.
On the outer periphery surface of the projection
22
b
of the coupling portion
22
, there is provided a bearing
41
, which holds the output side of the gear box
38
.
The barrel portion
14
of the conveyor roller
12
is covered at both the axial ends thereof with circular side discs
42
and
44
.
The side disc
42
on one end has a through hole
42
a
formed at the center thereof, where a bearing
46
is provided and the support shaft
24
a
of the motor
18
penetrates the through-hole
42
a
and the bearing
46
. Accordingly, the side disc
42
(at one end of the conveyor roller
12
) is rotatably supported by means of the support shaft
24
a.
Likewise, the side disc
44
on the other end has also a through-hole
44
a
formed therein, where a bearing
48
is provided. In addition, an independent support shaft
50
or a member separated from the drive device
16
inside the conveyor roller
12
penetrates the through-hole
44
a
, with the independent support shaft
50
being fixed to the external member
26
. Accordingly, the side disc
44
on the other end (of the conveyor roller
12
) is rotatably supported by means of the independent support shaft
50
.
Inside the support shaft
24
a
of the motor
18
, there is formed a wire guide path through which wiring
52
passes to supply electricity to the motor
18
. Since the motor
18
itself is fixed to the external member
26
by means of the support shaft
24
a
, the reactive force generated upon driving the conveyor roller
12
is received by means of the support shaft
24
a.
As described above, it is possible to directly convey goods or drive the conveyor belt by the rotation of the drive roller assembly
10
that serves as a motor roller.
The drive roller assembly
10
and a part thereof or the drive device
16
can positively transmit power by the engagement of gears. Thus, the drive roller assembly
10
and the drive device
16
are provide with a high torque transmission capability, being suitable in particular for conveying heavy goods.
However, recent years have seen various goods as goods to be conveyed, and accordingly the environment in which the goods are to be conveyed and the function with which the conveyor system has to be equipped have varied. Correspondingly, recent years have found such situations which the aforementioned drive roller assembly
10
or the like cannot sufficiently deal with.
It is not always true that conveyed goods are placed on the conveyor system under a stable condition (in the state of a low center of gravity). For example, goods having a high center of gravity such as long bottles or the like are placed upright in some cases. In these cases, when (the absolute value of) an acceleration in the conveyor system was too high, the conveyed goods readily fell down and thereby the conveyor line had to be temporarily stopped. In addition to this, there was a problem that when the line was temporarily stopped with the conveyed goods remaining placed on the conveyor system, the line had to be restarted from a standstill state to a high speed state of operation, thereby causing the conveyed goods to fall down again.
In order to avoid these problems, it is necessary to employ an inverter (a frequency controller) in addition to the drive device
16
so that the line continues to operate at a low speed with a low acceleration during a start-up and then increases gradually in speed to finally come to a constant high speed. However, the inverter is very expensive (approximately the same cost as the drive roller assembly
10
), leading to a substantial increase in cost of the whole system.
In general, these are caused by a torque greater at the start-up than during steady operation. For example, the high-efficiency motor or the like, which has become predominant lately in various fields of application, has the start-up torque approximately four times as great as the rated torque. Accordingly, the line would be subjected to a high start-up torque with or without the inverter, often causing the conveyed goods to fall down.
Furthermore, the rotational load of the conveyor would be significantly varied all of a sudden upon placing heavy goods suddenly onto the conveyor system d
Matsuoka Hiroki
Minegishi Kiyoji
Tamenaga Jun
Umeda Kazuyoshi
Arent Fox Kintner & Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
Sumitomo Heavy Industrie's, Ltd.
Valenza Joseph E.
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